Good people are hard to find for OPM

0 Comments | Insight on the News, June 3, 2002 | by John Elvin

"We did a survey recently, and people read announcements [of jobs] that were currently available in the system and told us at the very end that they had no idea what job the government was trying to fill," according to Dick Whitford, acting associate director for employment in the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Whitford told Government Executive magazine that OPM will be hiring two consultants to advise human-resources personnel in the various agencies on how to jazz up job announcements. They also will explain how to make the federal government look more attractive as an employer.

Currently, critics suggest, federal job announcements tend to be long-winded, loaded with insider jargon and based on bureaucratic job descriptions rather than selling the job and its benefits. The article quoted one expert who said current announcements are thick with threatening language regarding dismissal, termination, removal, separation and other negative terms.

President George W. Bush has emphasized that he wants not just warm bodies but "the right persons for federal jobs." OPM Director Kay Coles James has remarked on the daunting task of following through on the president's directive while faced with a retirement crisis that could see up to 50 percent of federal jobs going vacant during the next couple of years. In a memo to staffers recently, James spelled out her desire to improve recruitment, make employment offices more customer-focused, attract the highest-caliber candidates to public service and assess them effectively." If you want an idea of the immensity of the federal recruitment process, check out http://usajobs.opm.gov. A recent count showed 16,000 jobs advertised there.